Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2010-09-03

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. In August, nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000), and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent. Large declines in federal government employment continued as additional Census 2010 workers completed their temporary jobs. Private-sector employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000) and has increased by an average of 72,000 per month over the past 4 months. In August, federal government employment fell for the third consecutive month. The number of temporary Census 2010 workers declined by 114,000, following declines of 225,000 and 143,000 in June and July, respectively. This leaves 82,000 temporary decennial census workers on the payroll. Health care continued to add jobs (+28,000) in August, with employment increases in both ambulatory health care services and hospitals.